Facebook released an arguably failed email system over a year and a half ago. Code Name: Project Titan! What it ended up being is a unified messaging system for IM & Email like messaging, that can technically be used for email as well. From an email perspective, I don’t think it got mass adoption as the Gmail killer it was touted to be. So today they replaced the default email address to @facebook.com on all of their nearly 1 billion member profiles today. The tech media is screaming about it, but will the regular folks? Or will they react to it like “First Day On The Internet Kid Here?” Time will tell. But I think it sucks.
I was really looking forward to the launch of Instagram on Android. Especially since the founder demoed it at SXSW on a Galaxy Nexus and said “It looks even better than on iOS!” Unfortunately it doesn’t work on my Galaxy Nexus. I can’t share anything from my gallery (Camera Roll to iOS friends), and I’ve had several crashes/timeouts when adding my friends via contacts, Facebook & Twitter. So it’s been a year to release an Android app, and it won’t even work? I admire the focus of the Instagram team, and I’m sure the bugs will be ironed out, but I’m the kind of guy who likes trying beta software, and believes all software in some stage of refinement. They could have had this problem 6 months ago, and been releasing new updates. Trial by fire. Continually iterating. They certainly have the funding to do an Android app.
Now we have created this false demand for an app that is currently a letdown to me, and sours me on Instagram, not necessarily Android. I know Scoble and others have some strong opinions on how this hurts Android as a platform and fragmentation is a problem. But the fact also remains that lots of people use Android. If you want these people as users, then you build an app for them.
I’m rooting for Instagram. I want it on my phone. I feel it’s a great photo sharing solution (if not the most hyped app ever). But today it doesn’t work on my phone and I’m kinda annoyed by that.
